Why was Suharto sent a legal notice by Arbovirus?

Arbovirus logo. Photo: Collected

Get yourself a bag of popcorn. You will be needing it as Arbovirus is back infecting all of us with a drama that has devolved into a classic case of 'he says, she says' — with both parties believing they have been aggrieved.

Here's how everything unfolded. 

Suharto Sherif, one of the founding members and the guitarist of Arbovirus was sent a legal notice by advocate Zahid Hassan Fahad on behalf of his clients, the four original members, Sufi Maverick, Ahmed Aldane, Nafeez Al Amin and Asif Asghar Ranjan, stating that he should stop performing and making new music under the name of 'Arbovirus'.

By the way, Suharto claims that he has not yet received any legal notice whatsoever. However, advocate Zahid confirms that he has emailed him the notice and that the physical copy may take one more business day to reach Suharto.

On one side rest the four "original" members claiming a whole heap of things, almost all of which has been rubbished by Suharto Sherif, the other "founding" member. The four members' stipulations are as follows:

Suharto cannot perform under the Arbovirus brand

Contrary to popular belief, Arbovirus never "broke up." Sufi resigned last year but was replaced by another vocalist, who by the way, was recruited through a proper audition. However, the fact that Suharto has been performing and recruiting other musicians and passing them off as permanent members without consulting the other members is where the four took offence because as far as they are concerned, what the audience presently see on stage is "not Arbovirus."
Ranjan said, "We didn't have a formal meeting as Suharto already recruited the temporary members as permanent members and even though he was asked to wait. We found out he recruited a new vocalist when I went to Dhaka."

Suharto on the other hand has maintained his stance by saying, "The band has been around for more than two decades. Over the years, multiple members have come and gone. I had to keep the band running. Everyone has been leaving the country since 2016. They are almost on the verge of obtaining foreign citizenship."

He further added, "I was the only one keeping the band afloat and I kind of had to since the band was my sole source of revenue. It is not possible for a band to function and record with all members working remotely. I had a meeting with Asif Asghar in May 2022 about the future of the band but he did not agree with the fact that I wanted to proceed with the band. We were supposed to have further meetings but Ranjan cut off all communication with me. I had to integrate the newer members and we [touring artists] were widely accepted by fans because we worked really hard for this."

Hack or crack?

If you're a Bangladeshi band music fan and not living under a rock for the past couple of months, you are probably aware of the recent hacking debacle involving Arbovirus where the band's official page was "hacked" and as a result, a few unpleasant and untrue statements were posted.

According to Zahid Hassan, the accusations of "hacking" which were directed towards his clients were all baseless and apparently, the actions did not even fall under the definition of "hacking." As per his statements, the cyber crime unit had suggested to Suharto that the matter should be resolved internally because what had happened, was not a " criminal offence."

Moreover, Bamba (Bangladesh Musical Bands Association) also stepped in and requested Suharto and Ranjan to conduct a formal meeting and resolve the issues. However, the meeting never saw the light of day.

Regarding the hacking debacle, Suharto said, "I have all the evidence. I did not press charges against anyone. All I did was file a GD without specifying anyone's name, which is the normal procedure to adopt if someone's account gets hacked."

"I had suddenly lost access to the account of which I was the sole admin. Posts were uploaded without my knowledge. I could not reach out to any other member because I was blocked by all of them," added Suharto.

To a point beyond no return?

So here's where things get dirty. And by dirty, I mean…real dirty. 
Recently, Suharto was allegedly accused of having threatened Sufi Maverick's wife over a phone call. An action, which according to Ranjan, was a point of no return.

"The fans, the media and everyone else is focused on the band's name and all the 'he says she says.' Things could have been resolved but the moment he threatened and intimidated Sufi's wife and his family, it was a point of no return. We are all family people and we have to stand up for our families along with ourselves," remarked Ranjan.

Suharto totally denies all these claims. As a matter of fact, he was perplexed because according to him, a mountain was made out of a molehill.

"Sufi's wife is just like my younger sister. I have known her for years and whenever one of us [one of the band members] cannot reach another, we try to communicate through their partner. I had called her and asked whether she knew anything about Sufi's comeback or if she could connect me to Sufi because I wanted to resolve the issues related to the hacking. I never made any threats whatsoever. It's a lie and I feel all of them are ganging up on me," concluded Suharto.

Are you done with the bag of popcorn? Stay tuned. Who knows, something more raunchy might follow because that's what seems to be going on with Arbovirus these days?